Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how Hello Code Pty Ltd ("Hello Code, "we", "our" or "us") collects, uses, and discloses personal information that you provide to us or that we collect about you when you use our website at exist.io (the "Site" or "Exist"). We also explain how we use cookies and other tracking technology as part of the Site.
There's a lot here, but a real person wrote all of it. Please take the time to read the entire policy if you have questions about how we handle your personal information.
This Privacy Policy was last updated 6 October 2023. If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on the Site to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
Update history
- 2014-01-28: Initial privacy policy
- 2018-03-27: Clarified that we won't ever sell user data except as part of selling Exist or being acquired; clarified that users will be notified in advance if this happens; added Help Scout and Stripe as companies with whom we share some user information
- 2018-05-21: Clarified more "data processors", Campaign Monitor, and that if you connect location and weather, we share your approximate location with Dark Sky and Google Maps.
- 2021-10-26: Added Sentry to our list of third-parties.
- 2023-10-06: Added clarification of Health Connect use.
Why we collect your data
Your data is at the core of the service we provide. We use the information you share with us to provide you with a detailed look at your life and your habits. By combining multiple sources of information that you create, we can find correlations and trends, and allow you to view these different activities in the one place. Our service is all about making use of the information that you choose to share with us, and we take the responsibility to protect your information very seriously.
The information we collect about you as part of the Site
When you create an account on Exist (hereafter "Exist Account" or "Account"), you become a registered user ("User") and are given the ability to connect your account with many other third-party services (a "Service") with which you also have an account.
When you connect a Service to your Account, we endeavour to explain the useful information we collect from this service. For example, we may collect your daily number of steps or a list of places you have recently visited. Along with this data, we will also collect identifying and personal preference information the Service provides about you, such as your username or your preference for metric or imperial units.
We will continue to collect information from Services for as long as they are connected to your Exist Account, even when you are not actively using or logged in to the Site. We collect this information regularly so that when you use the Site, your information is up-to-date. When you first connect the Service, we may collect information you created before this point, back to the date you first created an account with the Service.
You may also choose to provide us with regular information directly. In this case no Service is involved and your data is transmitted directly to Exist.
As part of creating an Exist Account, we will collect information such as your name and email address for the purposes of administering your account.
Other information we collect
You may provide us with geolocation information, subject to the settings provided in the Site. If you correspond with us by email, we may retain the content of your email messages, your email address and our responses. We may also retain any messages you send to us through the Site. As part of the Site we also collect comments and messages you post on your Account and to other Users.
Cookies Information: When you visit the Site, we may send one or more cookies — a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters — to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser and lets the Service help you log in faster and enhance your navigation through the site. A cookie may also convey anonymous information about how you browse the Service to us. A cookie does not collect personal information about you. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser's directions. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser. You can reset your web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features of the Site may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled.
Log File Information: Log file information is automatically reported by your browser each time you access a web page. When you use the Site, our servers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends whenever you visit any website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other such information.
Clear Gifs Information: When you use the Site, we may employ clear gifs (also known as web beacons) which are used to track the online usage patterns of our Users anonymously. No personally identifiable information from your Account is collected using these clear gifs. In addition, we may also use clear gifs in HTML-based emails sent to our Users to track which emails are opened by recipients. The information is used to enable more accurate reporting, improve the effectiveness of our marketing, and make Exist better for our Users.
How we use the information we collect
We use the personal information you submit to operate, maintain, customise, and provide to you the features and functionality of the Site.
By providing Hello Code with your email address or mobile phone number, you consent to our using the email address or mobile phone number to send you Site-related notices via email or SMS, including any notices required by law, in lieu of communication by postal mail. You also agree that we may send you notifications of activity on the Service to the email address you give us, in accordance with any applicable privacy settings. We may use your email address or mobile phone number to send you other messages, such as newsletters, changes to features of the Site, or special offers. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you may opt out or change your preferences in your settings (not currently available). Opting out may prevent you from receiving messages regarding updates, improvements, or offers. You may not opt out of Site-related messages.
We may use certain information about you internally for purposes such as analysing how the Site is used, diagnosing service or technical problems, maintaining security, and personalising content.
We may generate and disclose aggregated and anonymised information statistics relating to User Account and Site information for marketing purposes, or in order to provide you with broad statistics as part of personalising your service. However, we will ensure that aggregated statistics do not identify individual Users.
Hello Code reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor the information you post on the Site. We reserve the right to remove any such information or material for any reason or no reason, including without limitation if in our sole opinion such information or material violates, or may violate, any applicable law, or to protect or defend our rights or property or those of any third party. We also reserve the right to remove information upon the request of any third party.
We use cookies, clear gifs, and log file information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site; (b) provide custom, personalised content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our Service; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns; (e) diagnose or fix technology problems reported by our Users or engineers that are associated with certain IP addresses; (f) help you efficiently access your information after you sign in; and (h) track User Content and Users to the extent necessary to comply as a service provider with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; and (i) automatically update the Exist application on your system and related devices.
The use of information received from Health Connect will adhere to the Health Connect Permissions policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
What information we share
We do not rent, sell, or share personal information with other people or companies except when we have your permission.
We will not rent or sell your personally identifiable information to others. We may share your personally identifiable information with third parties for the purpose of providing the Service to you. If we do this, such third parties' use of your information will be bound by this Privacy Policy. We may store personal information in locations outside the direct control of Hello Code (for instance, on servers or databases co-located with hosting providers).
As we develop our business, we may buy or sell assets or business offerings. Customer, email, and visitor information is generally one of the transferred business assets in these types of transactions. We may also transfer or assign such information in the course of corporate divestitures, mergers, or dissolution. We will never sell personal information as part of the everyday process of running Exist, but it may be transferred as part of the sale, merger, or dissolution of Exist or Hello Code. In the event that this occurs, we will do our best to notify Users before any personal information is transferred, allowing you to opt-out of this transfer and delete your Account in advance.
Any personal information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to the Site, and any information you choose to make public on your Account profile, becomes available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy settings. If you remove information that you posted to the Site, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Site, or if other Users have copied or saved that information.
Third-parties with whom we share personal information
We use Help Scout to track User support emails and as such, your name, email address, and correspondence with us at our official support email address are shared with this company. This data is only shared if you email our support email address or use the "Contact Us" form on the Site.
We use Stripe to manage User subscriptions and as such your email address, credit card information, and subscription payment history are shared with this company. As it is a legal requirement for us to keep accounting records, we're legally unable to delete your email address and payment records from Stripe when your account is deleted.
If you opt to share your location with us via any service, such as Exist for iOS or Swarm, we will share this latitude and longitude with Google Maps in order to get your suburb-level location name and to display a map of your approximate location to you on the Site. No other identifying information is sent to Google Maps with your location.
If you opt to share your location with us and connect the Dark Sky service, we will send your latitude and longitude to Dark Sky in order to get local weather conditions. No other identifying information is sent to Dark Sky with your location
We use Campaign Monitor to send emails to Users, such an informational emails about new updates to Exist. When you create an Account, your name and email address are shared with this company.
We use Sentry to track information about errors and crashes in our mobile apps and on the Site. Your username is part of this information, as well as details about your mobile phone, such as model and software version numbers. While we endeavour to collect the minimum amount of personal information needed in order to understand and fix crashes, we may at times send data related to your attributes to Sentry as part of our error logs.
(We also use Google Analytics to track visitors to our Site, but we do not share any personally identifiable information.)
How we protect your information
We use commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personal information and implement your privacy settings. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to the Site or guarantee that your information on the Site may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. We limit access to personal information about you to employees who reasonably need access in order to provide services to you or in order to ensure the Site continues to operate without issue. Your privacy settings may also be affected by changes to the functionality of our distributors, such as social networks. Hello Code is not responsible for the functionality or security measures of any third party.
You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your password and account information, and for controlling access to your email communications from the Site, at all times.
We have deliberately chosen to host our Site outside the United States in order to provide additional safeguards for the security of your data.
How you can delete your information
You can prevent us from collecting information from a Service by disconnecting this Service within your Account. We will not delete any past information relating to this service, but new information will not be collected.
You may request to delete your Account from the Site. When deleting your account, we will also delete all personal information from the Site. However, we may keep your information for a commercially reasonable period, for backup and archival purposes. Your personal information will remain confidential and secure throughout this period.
We may continue to retain and use your personal information where posted to public areas of the Site or as part of communications with Hello Code or other Users.
Contact us
If you have any questions about this policy you may contact us at hello@exist.io.